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A review by yasmilktea
The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
tl;dr summary:🙍🏾♀️👿⚔️🐈⬛ 🏃🏾♀️💪🏿💪🏾💪🏽💪🏼
3 stars is not too many stars but I didn’t dislike the book! It was just kind of 🤷🏻♀️. I enjoyed a lot of aspects, mainly the world itself and the mythology—so cool! Plus it was honestly very inspiring at points. I wanted to go fight something. And Ixa, Deka’s fantasy pet, was adorable.
The book had a lot of twists that were completely predictable to the point that I thought the characters already knew them…until the big reveals happened. Plus a lot of elements that felt out of place for the world/context. But my main issue was with the world-building because it felt a bit lacking. This could just be that we have an unreliable narrator, but I prefer my fantasies with a bit more…oomph. I mostly wanted more info on the different creatures and what their place was in the world, but maybe that’s coming.
All this said, the last 20% was so exciting that I will probably continue the series!
3 stars is not too many stars but I didn’t dislike the book! It was just kind of 🤷🏻♀️. I enjoyed a lot of aspects, mainly the world itself and the mythology—so cool! Plus it was honestly very inspiring at points. I wanted to go fight something. And Ixa, Deka’s fantasy pet, was adorable.
The book had a lot of twists that were completely predictable to the point that I thought the characters already knew them…until the big reveals happened. Plus a lot of elements that felt out of place for the world/context. But my main issue was with the world-building because it felt a bit lacking. This could just be that we have an unreliable narrator, but I prefer my fantasies with a bit more…oomph. I mostly wanted more info on the different creatures and what their place was in the world, but maybe that’s coming.
All this said, the last 20% was so exciting that I will probably continue the series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Violence, Sexism, War, Confinement, Gore, Torture, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Body horror
Minor: Sexual assault
It is very gory, and deals with trauma and recovery a lot. And by gory I mean that we get someone’s spine getting torn out of their body like Mortal Kombat and some description of dismemberment and beheadings happening. Also a dismembered head talks at one point so that’s definitely body horror imo.